


Edward

by Bermuda_Grass



Series: Nomenclature [2]
Category: The Glass Scientists (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, Light Angst, Listen I love Jeykll but he's made some mistakes, also I just want the Creature to have someone who can actually understand and bond with him, basically it's Hyde's turn to deal with existential dread, it's the least he deserves, with a kind of happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29543826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bermuda_Grass/pseuds/Bermuda_Grass
Summary: Jeykll gave him no name, he had to give himself one.
Relationships: Edward Hyde & The Creature, I just think they'd bond a lot
Series: Nomenclature [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2080002
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	Edward

**Author's Note:**

> If any of you are confused about why the Creature is suddenly being referred to by some random name I suggest you read the previous work in this series for it to make sense.

Mr.Hyde is a curious thing to Caillen. He is a brash man with no tact, and no care for the way he spoke or acted. He flited about the society in the darkened hours of the night with only a minimal understanding of the underground he so loved to peruse. He thrived off of the chaos he created, he enjoyed the aggravation he caused. In all manner of speaking, he was a bastard, and not someone Caillen would normally bother himself with. And at first, he didn't. He'd been too preoccupied with trying to save Frankenstein from her own arrogance to pay much attention to Hyde when the blond man had first brought him to the society. And then he spent most of his nights in bars of slums that made Caillen feel ill at just the thought of. They had no reason to interact much with each other and so they didn't. 

Something changed when Caillen was given his name, though. He'd expected resistance from the lodgers at the idea of letting him have a name. Henry had stood in front of them all, chest puffed and grin bared in a way that made him fill up the room far better than Caillen did even with his eight feet of height. He introduced him like it was the first time he was meeting the lodgers, loudly proclaiming Caillen to the world, and it was as simple as that. For all of their oddities and insensitive questions, not one scientist balked at the name. Every morning after that he was greeted as Caillen, and every time he heard the name it tugged not unpleasantly at his heart. It settled the part of him that had always prodded at the thick stitches stretching over him from the inside. It was nice, and he no longer felt like he was an arms reach from the people around him. Hyde, apparently, did not agree with this sentiment. The man that Caillen briefly saw in passing darting out a window or back door now took the time to leer at him. His mop of unruly hair would bounce as he mirthlessly laughed. 

"Caillen? You don't look all that Scottish." Hyde sneered one night, his smirk ever so cat-like. "Maybe your right arm, or your left hand, but you've got a german brow for sure!" He cackled and Caillen had simply walked away, spending the rest of the night with Jasper's menagerie of creatures who did not know the difference between a Scotsman or a German. 

The lodgers were kind enough, always quick to tell Hyde off if they were within earshot of his barbs. Even quicker to assure Caillen that Hyde was just like that to everyone, that it wasn't personal. Caillen couldn't quite believe that, but the sentiment was nice. He appreciated that someone cared enough to think Hyde's words were wrong. Caillen himself didn't bother with telling him off, he'd grown far too tired of defending himself from harsh words. Besides, he wasn't a creature anymore, he would not rise to anyone's bait. He'd long since snuffed his anger out and he wasn't about to reignite it anytime soon. They were childish taunts anyway, clearly meant to aggravate more than to cut all that deep. For the most part at least. There were some nights where Hyde's words struck like a physical blow, they clawed under Caillen's skin and hooked into his muscles. They dripped poison and were spat out as if they burned Hyde's throat to even say. Those were the nights where Hyde would not laugh. He would scowl and scream and _glare_ with eyes that shone with something broken. Something that Caillen had once seen in his own features. That he still does, if he were to be honest. It was those nights that kept Caillen from truly rising to Hyde's bait. Caillen didn't know much about Hyde but he knew that look. So Caillen waited. He withstood every barb and every seething phrase until he understood. 

It was a dreary night by all accounts. Dark heavy clouds had loomed the whole day and seemed keen on staying throughout the night as well, letting down a torrent of needle-sharp rain that pricked at your skin if you were foolish enough to go out without an umbrella. Not that Caillen would know, he most certainly had no plans to step outside. He occupied himself in the kitchen, his hands flipping through one of Rachel's well-used books of recipes. He was still very much an amateur baker despite Rachel's best efforts. But he couldn't sleep, so he figured he might as well put his idle hands to use. Plus he found the woman's scribbled notes to be quite charming, mundane as they were. He would've been startled by the rattling of the window opening if it wasn't a weekly occurrence. He didn't even bother looking up from a riveting brownie recipe as Hyde slunk into the kitchen, his water-logged cloak making a rather unappealing sound as it slapped against the counter. 

"Fucking raining cats and dogs." The smaller man hissed as he shook his wet hair out as if he were a canine, his hat skidding onto the floor with his haphazard motion. "Well, I don't _have_ a god damn umbrella now do I-" He seethed to no one before his gaze fell on the towering figure in the kitchen. "Oi, what are you doing in here, you great big oaf?" He demanded. 

"I have a name" He replied firmly, just as he always did, if only because the novelty of being able to say that he has something to be called still hadn't worn off. "And I'm baking, one of the many uses of a kitchen." He said simply, blowing a stray hair out of his face before he went back to his book. 

He didn't pay much mind to the grouching spiel that Hyde rattled off. He was shivering and damp from rain and just looking for a reason gripe. Though, it was hard to fully block out Hyde's smarmy tone. He practically commanded attention when he spoke, it was almost an art form. It was after five minutes of mockery that Caillen gave a tired sigh.

"Well, perhaps you could have given me a better name yourself." He said cooly and expected Hyde to huff and storm off like he normally did after Caillen's indifferent dismissals.

Something soared dangerously close to his head and he heard the shrill noise of shattering ceramic by the time he is able to look up at Hyde. The man looked positively feral with his damp hair half sticking to his face and a snarl etched across his features, arm still poised from hurling the bowl and eyes wide with hatred. "Perhaps you don't deserve a name. Did you ever think of that?" He raged, clearing the distance of the kitchen in a few long strides. He was smaller, not even reaching Caillen's shoulders, but he seethed with enough indignant rage to be intimidating. 

"You waltz around like a sulking shadow, moping and wishing you were normal. But you're not. You're not a man, you're a failed project! An experiment, what was leftover at the bottom of someone's test tube. You're a creature, you're a thing, barely even a _beast_." The blonde was shaking and pointing accusingly at Caillen with trembling hands. "You could be out every night giving in to your base urges. Sinking into that feeling that you need to destroy and ruin and desecrate and no one would think it odd of you, because that's just your nature. It's what you are. It's expected of you even, but you just can't do that. You have to prove them wrong, you have to act like you're so much better than that. And everyone so adores you for it, don't they Caillen?" He spat the name as if it were a vile curse, his lip quirking up in a feral manner that showed his teeth. 

"They dote on you and your passive nature. Dear Henry even named you, isn't that so sweet?" Hyde was nothing but claws and anger as he took a step forward, forcing Caillen to take a step back to maintain some distance. "He named _yo_ _u_ and-and..." 

Suddenly the rage left Hyde's small frame like air from a balloon. All at once, his shoulders slumped and his arms curled around himself. "You aren't _his_ and he still-" A strangled noise left the blonde man's throat, more animal than human-sounding. At first, Caillen thought it was the beginnings of a sob, but then Hyde was clenching at his hair as if was is the only thing keeping his skull from splitting in two. The taller man took a step forward as Hyde lurched in on himself, but Hyde didn't even seem to notice. 

"Bastard, _bastard_!" He growled, but the words weren't being thrown at Caillen even as he towered over Hyde. "You can't-You don't get to do this, not right now! You promised me tonight-" The sentence was swallowed by a guttural noise as Hyde dragged his hand through his hair, faint streaks of crimson marring the blonde locks. 

Caillen did not step back, but he thought better than to reach out and touch Hyde in his state. So he watched carefully as his small form writhed and snapped. Caillen caught his eye at one point and he swore he saw dark amber splashed against his normally emerald green eyes, but Hyde had hunched over himself in another second before Caillen could make heads or tails of it. It felt like a small eternity, watching the man fighting as if something was trying to claw its way out of his skull, but finally, Hyde had calmed, leaning against the counter and hissing in sharp breaths. Caillen couldn't fathom why, but as he stared at the man's recovering form, with trembling shoulders and lungs that still weren't properly working, he _understood_. Not everything, no, he doubted he even understood half of what made Hyde into the man he was, but he knew enough. He knew the pain of a scorned child, he knew the turmoil that only could be express through cruelty. He knew the harrowed tone of someone who had been deemed less than a man by the one who'd cast them into the world in the first place. And, he knew that for all Henry had given Caillen, he denied the same for his own creation. It...hurt. It hurt terribly for Caillen to come to that conclusion. Henry was a kind man, a good man, he understood the circumstances of one's creation doesn't define them. Caillen was proof of that and yet he had turned away from Hyde, and for what? Because he wasn't the most eloquent? He wasn't the most polite? Because he wasn't what Henry wanted? Did the doctor's kindness only extend to those who were "respectable" enough to suit his tastes? 

"Who named you?" The words fell from Caillen's mouth so quickly that was he still half caught up in his own thoughts before he realized he'd said them.

"What?" Hyde hissed in turn, raising his head to glare at Caillen. It was a rather pitiful attempt, the man just looked so tired. 

"Who named you?" He repeated, tone soft but unwavering. 

"I don't-"

"Who gave you your name?"

"Shut up you-"

"Hyde-"

"I named myself, alright?!" Hyde hadn't been all that loud, but the words felt heavy in the air. "...I named myself because _he_ couldn't be bothered. He never asked either, didn't care enough to even _ask_ if I wanted a proper name. Just told me not to fuck up and stick with what I'd said." Caillen had never heard the blond man sound so...small before. He was so used to Hyde taking up more space than he should, it made the room around them feel impossibly cold and large. 

"...Your head is bleeding." Are the only words Caillen could find himself settling on after tonight's alarming series of revelations. 

Hyde at least gives a dry laugh at that, though it barely tugs at the corner of his mouth. Caillen isn't used to this side of the blonde man. He wasn't used to the idea of him being vulnerable in any capacity. He isn't used to having to watch what he says around Hyde, and he was fairly certain Hyde wasn't used to bearing his emotions to anyone in this way. So, Caillen decided to focus on what he could do easily and grabbed a kitchen towel from the counter before carefully approaching Hyde. Hyde didn't move, so the taller man took it as permission. With a mental note to apologize to Rachel for ruining her freshly washed towel, he began to carefully prod through the wild man of hair to examine the scratches on his scalp. Most of them weren't particularly deep, though one or two seemed a bit concerning, so Caillen just went about cleaning up the crimson leaking into his hair as best he could. Hyde stood stock still through it all, not even flinching at the sting of his wounds. It was quiet, but it was less tense than just a few minutes prior, it was easy for Caillen to focus on the simple tasks of wiping blood from the small man's head and to not acknowledge the fact that they were more similar than either of them cared to admit. But Caillen couldn't leave things like this. Not when Hyde still looked so small and so exhausted beyond his years, holding onto a secret he's sure Henry was making him keep. 

"You're not a beast." He says, and he felt the air move more than he hears the blonde man's scoff. "I do not think you are a beast, Hyde. I think you are upset, and rightly so. Your creator will not give you solace, but that doesn't mean you are undeserving of it. That isn't for him to decide." Caillen dares to venture and he feels Hyde tense. Caillen is afraid he has overstepped, or that he has presumed too much in thinking their situations were all that similar and he is prepared to step back and leave before he sends Hyde into another fit of rage. 

"Do you think-" Hyde spoke, his head still tilted towards the floor and his voice broke off before he could finish. "Could you call me Edward, please? Just-just Edward. Rachel's the only one who ever does but-" His voice failed him again and Caillen could see he was shaking once more.

"Of course, Edward. As much as you'd like, as often as you'd like." Caillen said.

Hyde nodded ever so slightly and in the moments of silence that stretch between them once more Caillen dared enough to gently rest one of his imposing hands atop his head. Suddenly small arms encircled him and Caillen paused for a moment before he gently draped an arm around Hyde's back, the other one still gently smoothing down wild curls of hair. The smaller man is still shaking, but caillen pays no mind. And if he felt the dampness of tears start to leech into the front of his shirt, well, he paid that no mind either. They stayed like that for longer than Caillen could keep track of, with Edward's face buried against his chest as he was wracked with silent sobs. Ever so slowly they began to die out, and Caillen was left with Edward still in his arms, seemingly content with staying there, and Caillen wasn't about to be the one to pull him away from so desperately needed comfort. 

"Would you like to help me bake cookies?" He suggested once it seemed like the blonde man was calmer.

For a few moments Edward didn't move, but he slowly shifted so he was looking at Caillen, looking a bit sheepish in fact. "...Yes." He admitted.

The events that transpired in the kitchen that night were never brought up again, by Caillen or by Edward. But, on nights when Caillen just can't get to sleep, he wanders over to the kitchen and leaves the window open, and leaves a plate of cookies out before he leaves, and in the mornings he found they'd usually be gone. A few weeks after starting that particular routine he found a note slid under his door one night he'd been able to find sleep in a scrawl that was barely passing for legible.

**You're too stingy on the chocolate chips, Caillen -Edward**

Caillen couldn't help but chuckle at the message before he tucked it away in his desk drawer beside a well-worn copy of Treasure Island.

**Author's Note:**

> I know technically according ot the comic Jeykll didn't have a chance to even think of a name for Hyde before he was first created, but I took some creative liberty for the sake of the melodrama.


End file.
